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FROM COLUMBIAN MAGAZINE, JANUARY, 1790. 



CONGRESS HALL 



***»An address by Hon. SAMUEL 
W. PENNYPACKER, LL.D., at 
the Last Session of the Court of 
Common Pleas, No. 2, in Congress 
Hall, Philadelphia 9**¥vr****vv***v 

SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH 
MDCCCXCV 



Printed for the 
Philadelphia Bench and Bar 



Press of 

Edward Stem .Si Co., Inc. 
Philadelphia 



. ? p4- 



On September 16, 1895, the Common Pleas No. 2 of 
Philadelphia County sat for the last time in Congress Hall, at 
the southeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets. The Hall 
had been occupied by that Court continuously from its organi- 
zation in 1875, and before that time by the District Court of 
the City and County of Philadelphia. It had been the scene of 
many great trials, and of many of the greatest forensic efforts 
by the leaders of the Philadelphia Bar. On the day above 
mentioned, and in order that the occasion might be fitly 
marked, a large attendance of the Bench and Bar was had and 
an address by Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, an Associate 
Judge of the Court, was delivered. 

The Hon. John Innes Clark Hare, LL.D., President of the 
Court, occupied the chair, and upon the Bench with him, in 
addition to his associates, Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker and 
Hon. Mayer Sulzberger, there were present the following 
Judges : Justices James T. Mitchell and D. Newlin Fell, of the 
Supreme Court ; Judges James Gay Gordon, and Theodore F. 
Jenkins, of the Common Pleas ; and Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, 
of the Old Court of Common Pleas and formerly Attorney- 
General. There was a large attendance of the Bar. Judge 
Pennypacker's address was listened to with the greatest atten- 
tion and pleasure, and with feelings of the liveliest and most 

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profound satisfaction. At its conclusion, Judge Hare, in a few 
remarks, referred to the history of the Hall and to his own 
long and happy associations with the place, as well as with his 
colleagues and with the Bar during his judicial career. It was 
the unanimous sentiment of the members of the Bench and Bar 
then present, in which it was felt that the entire Bench and 
Bar of Pennsylvania would most cordially concur, that the 
learned, instructive and interesting paper of Judge Penny- 
packer should be preserved, and to that end it was resolved 
that the thanks of the Bench and Bar should be presented to 
Judge Pennypacker, and that the address should be printed. 

The thanks of the profession were then tendered to Judge 
Pennypacker; and the undersigned were appointed a committee 
to cause the address to be printed. 

Edward Shippen, 
Samuel Dickson, 
George Tucker Bispham. 



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Address. 

Gentlemen of the Philadelphia Bar : l 

" When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what mean ye 
by these stones ? Then ye shall answer them." — Joshua, Chap. IV, Verses 6 and 7. 

' ' Les grands edifices, comme les grands montagnes, son/ 1 ' ouvrage des siicles." — 
Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo. 

It is proper and fitting that the Court of Common Pleas 
No. 2, in finally departing from the building in which its ses- 
sions have for so longf a time been held, should recall the 
remarkable associations of the venerable structure. The events 
of human life are necessarily connected with localities. The 
career of a man is somewhat influenced by the house in which 
he was born and the place he calls home, and in the growth and 
development of nations, such buildings as the Parthenon, the 
Pyramids, St. Peter's, the Prinzen Hof at Delft, Westminster 

1 In the preparation of this address I have used freely Thompson Westcott's 
" History of Philadelphia," as printed in the Sunday Dispatch ; John Hill Martin's 
"Bench and Bar"; Frank M. Etting's " History of Independence Hall," F. D. 
Stone's edition ; Hon. James T. Mitchell's " Address Upon the District Court," and 
John William Wallace's "Address Upon the Inauguration of the New Hall of the 
Historical Society." 

I have been materially aided by Mr. Andrew J. Reilly, Mr. Luther E. Hewitt, 
Mr. John W. Jordan, Mr. Julius F. Sachse and Mr. F. D. Stone. 



Abbey, and Independence Hall, about which important mem- 
ories cluster, become an inspiration for present action and 
an incentive for future endeavor. When we search with due 
diligence we find good in everything and sermons in stones 
and bricks. 

The idea of the erection of a hall for the use of the county 
originated with the celebrated lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, to 
whose efforts we owe also the State House. He, as early as 
1736, secured the passage of a resolution by the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania looking to the accomplishment of this purpose. 
The Act of February 1 7, 1 762, provided for a conveyance to 
the county of a lot at the southeast corner of Sixth and Chest- 
nut streets, containing in front on Chestnut Street fifty feet, 
and in depth along Sixth Street seventy-three feet, on which 
should be erected within twenty years a building to be used 
"for the holding of courts" and as a "common hall." The 
project progressed slowly, and when it was finally carried for- 
ward to completion, two different funds were used for the 
purpose. The first of them had a curious origin. It was a 
time-honored custom among the early mayors of the city to 
celebrate their escape from the labors and responsibilities of 
their office by giving a public banquet, to which their constit- 
uents were generally invited. In 1741, James Hamilton, a son 
of Andrew Hamilton, and mayor at the time, considering it a 
custom more honored in the breach than in the observance, 
gave, in lieu of the entertainment, the sum of one hundred and 
fifty pounds, to be used in the erection of an exchange or 
other building for public purposes, and subsequent mayors 

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followed his example. If our late mayor, when he vacated his 
office in March last, sent no prandial communication to you, 
these early qualms of conscience may explain the omission. 
The other fund was raised in 1785, by the sale of " the old gaol 
and work-house." On the 29th of March, 1787, fifteen feet 
were added to the depth of the lot by an Act of the Assembly ; 
soon afterward work was commenced upon the cellar by gangs 
of convicts called " wheelbarrowmen," 1 and the building was 
completed in the early part of 1789, just in time to insure its 
future fame and importance. On the 4th of March of that 
year, the Assembly, acting by authority of the representatives 
of the city and county of Philadelphia, tendered to Congress, 
for the temporary residence of the Federal Government, the use 
of the building " lately erected on the State House Square." 
In the year 1790, Congress, after a long and somewhat embit- 
tered struggle, finally determined to fix the location of the 
capital on the banks of the Potomac, and Philadelphia, mainly 
through the efforts of Robert Morris, and much to the dissatis- 
faction of the people of New York, was selected as the seat of 
government for the intervening period of ten years. On the 
6th of December, 1790, the first Congress, at its third session, 
met in this building, the House of Representatives on the floor 
below us, and the Senate in this room. 

In the Columbian Magazine for January, 1790, is a copper- 
plate representation of the building as it was when completed, 
taken from the southwest. This view shows five windows in 
each story of the west wall, two chimneys on the west, a cupola 

1 " Historical Magazine," Vol. X, p. 105. 



on top, a brick wall enclosing the square on Sixth Street, and 
the rear of the building pretty much as it is at present. The 
text describes it as " a large new building, finished in a neat 
and elegant style," and the square as " a beautiful lawn, inter- 
spersed with little knobs or tufts of flowering shrubs and clumps 
of trees well disposed. Through the middle of the gardens 
runs a spacious gravel walk, lined with double rows of thriving 
elms and communicating with serpentine walks which encom- 
pass the whole area. These surrounding walks are not uni- 
formly on a level with the lawn, the margin of which being in 
some parts a little higher forms a bank which, in fine weather, 
affords pleasant seats." 

From the books of foreign travellers and others we s^et 
a pretty good description of the internal arrangement and 
appearance of the building. Isaac Weld, an Englishman, says : 

"The room allotted to the representatives of the lower 
House is about sixty feet in length and fitted up in the plainest 
manner. At one end of it is a gallery, open to every person 
that chooses to enter it ; the staircase leading to which runs 
directly from the public street. The Senate chamber is in the 
story above this, and it is furnished and fitted up in a much 
superior style to that of the lower House." 

The eagle with its thunderbolts, and the centrepiece of 
grapevine with thirteen stars, still seen in the ceiling, marred 
by the useless and unornamental glass knobs, scattered over 
it only a few years ago, is a remnant of that "superior style " 
in which the Senate chamber was then fitted up. The gallery 
in the lower room had accommodations for three hundred 



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persons. In this room stood a large pyramidal stove. A 
broad aisle ran through the centre. 

We are told by a contemporary: "The House of Rep- 
resentatives in session occupied the whole of the ground floor, 
upon a platform elevated three steps in ascent, plainly carpeted, 
and covering nearly the whole of the area, with a limited logea 
or promenade for the members and privileged persons, and 
four narrow desks between the Sixth Street windows for the 
stenographers, Lloyd, Gales, Callender and Duane. The 
Speaker's chair, without canopy, was of plain leather and brass 
nails, facing the east, at or near the centre of the western wall. 
The first Speaker of the House in this city was Frederick 
Augustus Muhlenberg, who, by his portly person and handsome 
rotundity, literally filled the chair. His rubicund complexion 
and oval face, hair full powdered, tambored satin vest of ample 
dimensions, dark blue coat with gilt buttons, and a sonorous 
voice, exercised by him without effort in putting the question, 
all corresponding in appearance and sound with his magnificent 
name, and accompanied as it was by that of George Washing- 
ton, President, as signatures to the laws of the Union ; all these 
had an imposing effect upon the inexperienced auditory in the 
gallery, to whom all was new and very strange. He was 
succeeded here by Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, a very 
tall, rawboned figure of a gentleman, with terrific aspect, and, 
when excited, a voice of thunder. His slender, bony figure 
filled only the centre of the chair, resting on the arms of it 
with his hands and not the elbows. From the silence which 
prevailed, of course, on coming to order after prayers by 



Bishop White, an occasional whisper, increasing to a buzz, 
after the manner of boys in school, in the seats in the lobby and 
around the fires, swelling at last to loud conversation wholly 
inimical to debate. Very frequently at this stage of confusion 
among the babbling politicians, Mr. Speaker Dayton would 
start suddenly upon his feet, look fiercely around the hall, and 
utter the words, order, order, without the bar, in such appalling 
tones of voice that as though a cannon had been fired under 
the windows in the street, the deepest silence in one moment 
prevailed, but for a very short time." 

The voice of Muhlenberg seems to have impressed his 
contemporaries. In " He would be a Poet," a satire upon John 
Swanwick, published in Philadelphia in 1796, occur these lines: 



" I'll tell them all how great Augustus spoke ; 
With what an awful voice he called to order 
Whene'er the gallery did on tumult border." 



In the " House of Wisdom in a Bustle," a satire pub- 
lished in 1798, we find the following: 

" The clock had just struck ; the doors were extended ; 
The Priest to his pulpit had gravely ascended. 
Devoutly he prayed, for devoutly he should 
Solicit for wicked as well as for good. 
He prayed for the Gentile, for Turk, and for Jew, 
And hoped they'd shun folly and wisdom pursue, 
For all absent members — as some have a notion 
To dispense with this formal and pious devotion. 



This duty performed, without hesitation, 

He left to their wisdom the charge of the nation. 

When the parson retired, some members sat musing, 

Whilst others were letters and papers perusing. 

Some apples were munching ; some laughing and joking : 

Some snuffing, some chewing, but none were a-smoking ; 

Some warming their faces." 

This picture, indicating a lack of decorum in the House, 
is, perhaps, not overdrawn, since we are informed by another 
writer that a few of the members "persisted in wearing, while in 
their seats and during the debate, their ample cocked hats, 
placed fore and aft upon their heads, with here and there a leg 
thrown across the little desks before them." 

A happy chance has preserved this further piece of con- 
temporaneous color. "At the easternmost part of Congress 
Hall is a bench, on which stands a pitcher of water to cool the 
throats of the thirsty members." 1 

Henry Wansey, an Englishman, who was here in 1794, 
says: "Behind it is a garden which is open for company to 
walk in. It was planned and laid out by Samuel Vaughan, 
Esq., a merchant of London, who went a few years ago, and 
resided sometime in Philadelphia. It is particularly convenient 
to the House of Representatives, which, being on the ground 
floor, has two doors that open directly into it, to which they can 
retire to compose their thoughts or refresh themselves after 
any fatigue of business, or confer together and converse with- 
out interrupting the debate." 

1 Note to " House of Wisdom in a Bustle." 



John Svvanwick, himself a noted member of Congress 
from Philadelphia, as well as a poet of reputation at the time, 
in some verses " On a Walk in the State House Yard, June 30, 
1 787,'" which he seems to have made with his Delia, "to see 
her smile and hear her gentle talk," describes it as a place 
where the young people of that day did their courting. He 
pays a warm tribute to the man who 

" planned this soft retreat 
And decked with trees and grassy sod the plain," 

in lines which predict 

" Oh ! how much more shall he be crowned by fame 
Who formed for lovers this auspicious grove ; " 

and while he does not forget that 

"Even now the sages whom the land convenes 
To fix her empire and prescribe her laws, 
While pensive wandering through these rural scenes, 
May frame their counsels for a world's applause," 

he nevertheless thinks it more suited for enraptured swains 
who twine sportive garlands and reveal their wishes and fears. 
Brissot de Warville came to Philadelphia in 1788. He was 
much impressed by our Quaker people, and was on terms of 
close and intimate friendship with many of them, including 
Miers Fisher, the noted lawyer. His head, filled with decided 
opinions concerning philanthropy and the rights of mankind, 
was cut off by the guillotine in the early days of the French 

1 " Swanwick's Poems," p. 94. 
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Revolution. He describes what we call the square in this 
way: "Behind the State House is a public garden. It is the 
only one which exists in Philadelphia. It is not large, but it is 
agreeable. One can breathe there. There are large squares 
of green divided by walks." 

Judge Mitchell, in his interesting address upon the District 
Court, delivered twenty years ago, says: "There was no 
entrance on Sixth Street, no partition between the present 
Quarter Sessions room and the room of the Highway Depart- 
ment, and no stairs at that point leading to the second story. 
The entrance was on Chestnut Street into a vestibule, thence 
into a sort of second vestibule or foyer for spectators, and 
then a large room, occupied during the time the Congress sat 
here after its completion by the House of Representatives. 
The staircase to the second story was in the vestibule next to 
Chestnut Street, and led up to a similar vestibule, from which 
ran a broad entry southward to the Senate Chamber, which 
was the present District Court room No. i. The space now 
occupied by the District Court room No. 2, and the witness 
rooms, lately the Law Library, was divided into four committee 
rooms, two on each side of the broad entry I have mentioned. 
On the north side of the Senate Chamber was a gallery, attain- 
able only by a steep spiral staircase leading up from what has 
since been the east or conversation room of the Law Library. 
This gallery was not a part of the original plan of the building, 
and was put there after the room was accepted by the Senate. 
It was very close to the ceiling, narrow, dark and uncomfort- 
able. After the room came to be used by the courts the 

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gallery was commonly kept closed, as I learn from Judge Coxe, 
because it became a place of resort for the hangers-on, who 
frequently went to sleep and snored, to the great disturbance 
of the proceedings. It was finally removed in 1835." 

The late John McAllister used to tell that once, in his boy- 
hood days, he and another urchin found their way into this 
gallery and sat down to watch the proceedings of the Senate. 
He and his friend were the only spectators. Presently Thomas 
Jefferson arose and announced: "The Senate is about to go 
into executive session. The gentlemen in the gallery will 
please withdraw." Whereupon the two boys took their hats 
and departed, often afterwards saying, that at least they could 
claim to be gentlemen upon the authority of Jefferson. Those 
certainly were days of simplicity, when the only listeners that 
the debates of the Senate of the United States could attract 
were two errant urchins over whose heads time hung heavily. 

The same contemporary authority we have before cited 
describes the Senate in this way : " In a very plain chair, without 
canopy, and a small mahogany table before him, festooned at 
the sides and front with green silk, Mr. Adams, the vice-presi- 
dent, presided as president of the Senate, facing the north. 
Among the thirty senators of that day there was observed con- 
stantly during the debate the most delightful silence, the most 
beautiful order, gravity and dignity of manner. They all 
appeared every morning full powdered and dressed as age or 
fancy might suggest in the richest material. The very atmos- 
phere of the place seemed to inspire wisdom, mildness and 
condescension. Should any one of them so far forget for 



a moment as to be the cause of a protracted whisper while 
another was addressing the vice-president, three gentle taps 
with his silver pencil case upon the table by Mr. Adams imme- 
diately restored everything to repose and the most respectful 
attention." 

If we were to suppose, however, that in that early period 
of the history of the republic the politicians and statesmen 
treated each other with gentle and kindly courtesy, awarded to 
their opponents due measure of credit, and fought out their 
controversies without heat and wrath, we should be very much 
mistaken. No unprejudiced person can carefully compare the 
records they have left to us with those of the present without 
perceiving that in the course of the century which has elapsed 
there has been a decided advance both in morals and in 
manners, and it strengthens our faith in the stability of the 
government to believe, as we properly may, that future gene- 
rations will look back with as great pride and satisfaction upon 
the labors of the earnest and worthy men of to-day as do we 
upon those of the members of the earliest Congress, admirable 
as was much of their work and great as was their merit. Wil- 
liam Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania in the 
first Congress, kept a journal of the proceedings of the Senate 
while he sat with them in this room. Upon one occasion 
General Dickinson came and whispered to him : " This day the 
treasury will make another purchase, for Hamilton (Alexander) 
has drawn fifteen thousand dollars from the bank in order to 
buy." Maclay complacently adds: "What a damnable vil- 
lain!" At another time he gives expression to this devout 

15 



wish : " Would to God this same General Washington were in 
Heaven." 

Giles, the new member from Virginia, is preserved after 
this fashion : " The frothy manners of Virginia were ever upper- 
most. Canvas-back ducks, ham and chickens, old Madeira, the 
glories of the Ancient Dominion, all fine, were his constant 
themes. Boasted of personal prowess ; more manual exercise 
than any man in New England ; fast but fine living in his 
country, wine or cherry bounce from twelve o'clock to night 
every day. He seemed to practise on this principle, too, as 
often as the bottle passed him." 

In 1798 two of the members of the House, both of them 
from New England, Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, and Roger 
Griswold, of Connecticut, had a series of rencontres, which 
caused much commotion and comment, and became the subject 
of squibs and caricatures, and of at least two satires in verse, 
"The Legislative Pugilists" and "The House of Wisdom in a 
Bustle." On the 2 2d of January, while the House was voting 
for members upon the committee to prosecute the impeachment 
of Senator Blount, some allusion was made by Griswold to a 
story that Lyon, during the Revolutionary War, had been com- 
pelled to wear a wooden sword because of cowardice in the 
field. Lyon made answer by spitting in his face. A motion 
was made to expel Griswold, a committee was appointed to 
investigate, the committee reported a resolution in favor of the 
expulsion of Lyon, and the House negatived the resolution. 
On the 15th of February, while Lyon was writing at his desk, 
Griswold came up and hit him over the head and shoulders with 

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a club. Lyon managed to get hold of the tongs in use about 
the stove, and, defending himself, they beat each other until 
separated. Some time afterward they met in an ante-room, 
and Lyon struck Griswold with a stick. Sitgreaves ran, and 
having found a hickory club, gave it to Griswold, but they were 
again separated. While the matter led to much discussion, no 
definite action was taken by the House. 

Perhaps the most interesting event in the history of the 
buildingf was the inauguration of Washington as President of 
the United States on the 4th of March, 1793. The oath of 
office was administered to him by Judge Cushing in the room 
in which we are now sitting. Stansbury, in his " Recollections 
and Anecdotes of the Presidents of the United States," has 
given this description of the scene : " I was but a school boy at 
the time, and had followed one of the many groups of people 
who, from all quarters, were making their way to the hall in 
Chestnut Street at the corner of Sixth, where the two Houses 
of Congress then held their sittings, and where they were that 
day to be addressed by the President on the opening of his 
second term of office. Boys can often manage to work their 
way through a crowd better than men can. At all events, it so 
happened that I succeeded in reaching the steps of the hall, from 
which elevation, looking in every direction, I could see nothing 
but human heads — a vast fluctuating sea, swaying to and fro, 
and filling every accessible place which commanded even a 
distant view of the building. They had congregated, not with 
the hope of getting into the hall, for that was physically impos- 
sible, but that they might see Washington. Many an anxious 
2 17 



look was cast in the direction from which he was expected to 
come, till at length, true to the appointed hour (he was the most 
punctual of men), an agitation was observable on the outskirts 
of the crowd, which gradually opened and gave space for the 
approach of an elegant white coach, drawn by six superb white 
horses, having on its four sides beautiful designs of the four 
seasons, painted by Cipriani. It slowly made its way till it drew 
up immediately in front of the hall. The rush was now tremen- 
dous. But as the coach door opened there issued from it two 
gentlemen with long white wands, who, with some difficulty, 
parted the people so as to open a passage from the carriage to 
the steps on which the fortunate school boy had achieved a 
footing, and whence the whole proceeding could be distinctly 
seen. As the person of the President emerged from the carriage 
a universal shout rent the air, and continued as he deliberately 
ascended the steps. On reaching the platform he paused, 
looking back on the carriage, thus affording to the anxiety of 
the people the indulgence they desired of feasting their eyes 
upon his person. Never did a more majestic personage present 
himself to the public gaze. As the President entered all arose 
and remained standing until he had ascended the steps at the 
upper end of the chamber and taken his seat in the speaker's 
chair. It was an impressive moment. Notwithstanding that the 
spacious apartment, floor, lobby, galleries and all approaches 
were crowded to their utmost capacity, not a sound was heard. 
The silence of expectation was unbroken and profound. Every 
breath was suspended. He was dressed in a full suit of the 
richest black velvet ; his lower limbs in short clothes and 
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diamond knee buckles and black silk stockings. His shoes, 
which were brightly japanned, were surmounted with large 
square silver buckles. His hair, carefully displayed in the 
manner of the day, was richly powdered and gathered behind 
into a black silk bag, on which was a bow of black ribbon. In 
his hand he carried a plain cocked hat, decorated with the 
American cockade. He wore by his side a light, slender dress 
sword, in a green shagreen scabbard, with a richly ornamented 
hilt. His gait was deliberate, his manner solemn but sell-pos- 
sessed, and he presented altogether the most august human 
figure I had then or have since beheld. 

"At the head of the Senate stood Thomas Jefferson in a 
blue coat — single breasted, with large, bright basket buttons — 
his vest and small clothes of crimson. I remember being struck 
by his animated countenance of a brick-red hue, his bright eye 
and foxy hair, as well as by his tall, gaunt, ungainly form and 
square shoulders. A perfect contrast was presented by the 
pale, reflective face and delicate figure of James Madison, and, 
above all, by the short, burly, bustling form of General Knox, 
with ruddy cheek, prominent eye, and still more prominent 
proportions of another kind. In the semi-circle which was 
formed behind the chair, and on either hand of the President, 
my boyish gaze was attracted by the splendid attire of the 
Chevalier D'Yrujo, the Spanish embassador, then the only 
foreign minister near our infant government. His glittering 
star, his silk chapeau bras, edged with ostrich feathers, his 
foreign air and courtly bearing, contrasted strangely with 
those nobility of nature's forming who stood around him. It 

19 



was a very fair representation of the old world and the new. 
Having retained his seat for a few moments, while the members 
resumed their seats, the President rose and, taking from his 
breast a roll of manuscript, proceeded to read his address. 
His voice was full and sonorous, deep and rich in its tones, 
free from that trumpet ring which it could assume amid the 
tumult of battle (and which is said to have been distinctly 
heard above its roar), but sufficiently loud and clear to fill the 
chamber and be heard with perfect ease in its most remote 
recesses. He read, as he did everything else, with a singular 
serenity and composure, with manly ease and dignity, but 
without the smallest attempt at display. Having concluded, 
he laid the manuscript upon the table before him, and re- 
sumed his seat, when, after a slight pause, he rose and with- 
drew, the members rising and remaining on their feet until he 
left the chamber." 

This graphic and somewhat highly wrought narrative is 
certainly entertaining and interesting, but there are some fea- 
tures about it which suggest the query as to whether or not it 
is entirely trustworthy. 

The celebrated William Cobbett, one of the great masters 
of the English language and later a member of Parliament, was 
present upon all but five days of the session of 1795-6. " Most 
of the members will without doubt," he says, " recollect seeing 
a little dark man, clad in a grey coat something the worse for 
wear, sitting in the west corner of the front seat. That has 
been my post." On the 8th of December, 1795, Washing- 
ton came before the Senate and House assembled in the hall 



of the House, to present his message concerning Jay's treaty 
with England. He found Congress in a state of "composed 
gravity" and "respectful silence," and the gallery "crowded 
with anxious spectators." Cobbett then proceeds : 

"The President is a timid speaker. He is a proof among 
thousands that superior genius, wisdom and courage are ever 
accompanied with excessive modesty. His situation was at this 
time almost entirely new. Never till a few months preceding 
this session had the tongue of the most factious slander dared 
to make a public attack on his character. This was the first 
time he had ever entered the walls of Congress without a full 
assurance of meeting a welcome from every heart. He now 
saw even among those to whom he addressed himself numbers 
who to repay all his labors, all his anxious cares for their 
welfare, were ready to thwart his measures and present him 
the cup of humiliation filled to the brim. When he came to 
that part of his speech where he mentions the treaty with his 
Britannic majesty he cast his eyes toward the gallery. It was 
not the look of indignation and reproach, but of injured 
virtue which is ever ready to forgive. I was pleased to 
observe that not a single murmur of disapprobation was heard 
from the spectators that surrounded me ; and if there were 
some amongst them who had assisted at the turbulent town 
meetings I am persuaded that they were sincerely penitent. 
When he departed every look seemed to say : God prolong 
his precious life." 

John Adams, the second President of the United States, 
was inaugurated here on the 4th of March, 1 797. As Adams 



and Jefferson entered, they were each applauded by their 
respective party followers. Adams took his seat in the chair 
of the speaker ; Jefferson, Washington, and the secretary of the 
Senate were upon his left hand, and the Chief Justice and 
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States 
at a table in the centre. General James Wilkinson, com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, all of the officers of State and 
foreign ministers were present. Adams made a short speech, 
and then, going down to the table at which the judges were 
sitting, took the oath of office administered to him by the Chief 
Justice, Oliver Ellsworth. After his withdrawal, Jefferson was 
sworn into office as Vice-President. John McKoy, who was 
present, wrote a description of the scene for Poulson's Daily 
Advertiser. He says : " The first novelty that presented itself 
was the entrance of the Spanish minister, the Marquis Yrujo, in 
full diplomatic costume. He was of middle size, of round per- 
son, florid complexion, and hair powdered like a snowball ; dark 
striped silk coat, lined with satin ; white waistcoat, black silk 
breeches, white silk stockings, shoes and buckles. He had by 
his side an elegant hilted small sword, and his chapeau, tipped 
with white feathers, under his arm. Thus decorated, he crossed 
the floor of the hall with the most easy nonchalance possible 
and an occasional side toss of the head (to him habitual) 
to his appointed place. He was viewed by the audience for 
a short time in curious silence. He had scarcely adjusted him- 
self to his chair, when the attention of the audience was roused 
by the word 'Washington,' near the door of the entrance. 
The word flew like lightning through the assembly, and the 



subsequent varied shouts of enthusiasm produced immediately 
such a sound as 

'When loud surges lash the sounding shore.' 

It was an unexpected and instantaneous expression of simulta- 
neous feeling which made the hall tremble. Occasionally the 
word 'Washington,' 'Washington,' might be heard like the guns 
in a storm. He entered in the midst and crossed the floor at a 
quick step, as if eager to escape notice, and seated himself quickly 
on his chair, near the Marquis Yrujo, who rose up at his entrance 
as if startled by the uncommon scene. He was dressed similar 
to all the full length portraits of him — hair full powdered, with 
black silk rose and bag pendant behind as then was usual for 
elderly gentlemen of the old school. But on those portraits one 
who had never seen Washington might look in vain for that 
benign expression of countenance possessed by him and only 
sufficiently perceptible in the lithographic bust of Rembrandt 
Peale, to cause a feeling, as Judge Peters, in his certificate to 
the painter, expresses it. The burst at the entrance had not 
subsided, when the word 'Jefferson,' at the entrance door, again 
electrified the audience into another explosion of feeling similar 
to the first, but abated in force and energy. He entered, dressed 
in a long, blue frock coat, single breasted, and buttoned down 
to the waist ; light sandy hair, very slightly powdered and cued 
with black ribbon a long way down his back ; tall, of benign 
aspect and straight as an arrow, he bent not, but with an erect 
gait moved leisurely to his seat near Washington and sat down. 
Silence again ensued. Presently an increased bustle near the 

23 



door of the entrance, and the words ' President,' ' President 
Adams,' again produced an explosion of feeling similar to 
those that had preceded, but again diminished by repetition 
in its force and energy. He was dressed in a suit of light 
drab cloth, his hair well powdered, with rose and bag like 
those of Washington. He passed slowly on, bowing on each 
side, till he reached the speaker's chair, on which he sat down. 
Again a deep silence prevailed, in the midst of which he rose, 
and bowing round to the audience three times, varying his posi- 
tion each time, he then read his inaugural address, in the course 
of which he alluded to, and at the same time bowed to, his 
predecessor, which was returned from Washington, who, with 
the members of Congress, were all standing. When he had 
finished, he sat down. After a short pause, he rose up and, bow- 
ing round as before, he descended from the chair and passed 
out with acclamation. Washington and Jefferson remained 
standing together, and the bulk of the audience watching their 
movements in cautious silence. Presently, with a graceful 
motion of the hand, Washington invited the Vice-President, 
Jefferson, to pass on before him, which was declined by Mr. 
Jefferson. After a pause, an invitation to proceed was repeated 
by Washington, when the Vice-President passed on towards the 
door and Washington after him." 

Among the spectators of this interesting scene was Rem- 
brandt Peale, the artist, who had a seat in the gallery. Mrs. 
Susan R. Echard, who in 1859 was still living in Philadelphia at 
the age of eighty-three years, and who was present, wrote a 
contemporary letter to a kinsman in which she said: "When 

24 




FROM PHOTOGRAPH OF 1855. 



General Washington delivered his Farewell Address, in the 
room at the southeast corner of Chestnut and Sixth streets, I 
sat immediately in front of him. It was in the room Congress 
occupied. The table of the speaker was between the two 
windows on Sixth Street. The daughter of Dr. C.(Craik), of 
Alexandria, the physician and intimate friend of Washington, 
Mrs. H. (Harrison), whose husband was the auditor, was a 
very dear friend of mine. Her brother Washington was one 
of the secretaries of General Washington. Young Dandridge, 
a nephew of Mrs. Washington, was the other. I was included 
in Mrs. H.'s party to witness the august, the solemn scene. 
Mr. H. declined going with Mrs. H., as she had determined to 
go early, so as to secure the front bench. It was fortunate for 
Miss C. (Custis), (afterward Mrs. L. (Lewis), that she could 
not trust herself to be so near her honored grandfather. My 
dear father stood very near her. She was terribly agitated. 
There was a narrow passage from the door of entrance to the 
room, which was on the east, dividing the rows of benches. 
General Washington stopped at the end to let Mr. Adams pass 
to the chair. The latter always wore a full suit of bright drab, 
with lash or loose cuffs to his coat. He always wore wrist 
ruffles. He had not changed his fashions. He was a short 
man, with a good head. With his family he attended our 
church twice a day. General Washington's dress was a full 
suit of black. His military hat had the black cockade. There 
stood the " Father of his Country," acknowledged by nations 
the first in war, the first in peace, and the first in the hearts of 
his countrymen. No marshals with gold-colored scarfs attended 

25 



him ; there was no cheering, no noise; the most profound silence 
greeted him, as if the great assembly desired to hear him 
breathe, and catch his breath in homage of their hearts. Mr. 
Adams covered his face with both his hands; the sleeves of 
his coat, and his hands were covered with tears. Every now 
and then there was a suppressed sob. I cannot describe Wash- 
ington's appearance as I felt it — perfectly composed and self- 
possessed till the close of his address — then, when strong 
nervous sobs broke loose, when tears covered the faces, then 
the great man was shaken. I never took my eyes from his 
face. Large drops came from his eyes. He looked to the 
youthful children who were parting with their father, their 
friend, as if his heart was with them, and would be to the end." 1 
While Congress held its sessions in this building, the 
United States Mint and the United States Bank were estab- 
lished ; Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee were admitted into 
the Union ; the army and navy were organized upon a perma- 
nent basis ; Jay's treaty, determining our relations with Eng- 
land, resulting in much difference of opinion, was considered 
and ratified ; the whiskey insurrection was suppressed ; the 
wars with the Indians, conducted successively by Harmar, St. 
Clair and Wayne — all of them Pennsylvanians — were fought, 
and, in the ably managed campaign of Wayne, the power of 
the hostile tribes was finally broken, and the West won for 
civilization ; and the brief war with France, reflecting much 
credit upon our youthful navy and upon Commodore Thomas 
Truxton, afterward Sheriff of Philadelphia County, was cour- 

1 G. W. P. Custis's " Recollections of Washington," p. 434. 
26 



ageously undertaken and maintained. Here, too, was officially 
announced the death of Washington, when John Marshall offered 
a resolution " that a committee, in conjunction with one from 
the Senate, be appointed to consider on the most suitable 
manner of paying honor to the memory of the man first in war, 
first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen," thus 
originating an expressive phrase destined in America never 
to be forgfotten. Congress sat here ior the last time on the 
14th day of May, 1800. The last act of the Senate in this 
building was to request the President to instruct the Attorney- 
General to prosecute William Duane, editor of the Aurora, 
for a defamatory libel. Then, after the passage of a reso- 
lution extending its thanks to " the commissioners of the city 
and county of Philadelphia for the convenient and elegant 
accommodations furnished by them for the use of the Senate 
during the residence of the national government in the city," 
that august body adjourned to meet thereafter in the city of 
Washington, and the eclat incident to the location of the capital 
of the country departed from Philadelphia forever. 

At a later period a committee of Congress recommended 
the appropriation of a sum of one hundred thousand dollars 
as compensation by the Government for the use of these 
buildings, but nothing came of the proposition, and this city 
has the satisfaction of knowing that among its many patriotic 
services is the fact that without return of any kind, it furnished 
during ten years an abiding place to the homeless nation. 1 

1 Broadhead's "Location of the National Capital," Magazine of American 
History, January, 1884. 

27 



The subsequent history of the building is less eventful, 
and, though covering a period when it would seem that the 
facts ought to be accessible, is in reality much more obscure. 
A plan in a volume entitled "Philadelphia in 1824," shows 
that at that time the north room of the lower floor was occu- 
pied by the District Court, the south room by the Common 
Pleas, the north room of the upper floor by the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania, the south room by the Circuit Court of the 
United States, and that between these two rooms on the 
upper floor on the west was the Law Library, and on the east 
the Controllers of Public Schools. Definitely when these courts 
began their sessions here neither Judge Mitchell, nor Thompson 
Westcott who made a thorough search of the newspapers and 
most other sources of contemporary information, was able to 
ascertain. Some further light can now, however, be given. 
In the printed report of the trial, in 1809, of General Michael 
Bright, before Judges Bushrod Washington and Richard Peters, 
in the Circuit Court of the United States, an important case 
which involved a question of jurisdiction between the State of 
Pennsylvania and the United States Government, and whose 
events of a very warlike nature caused the house at the north- 
west corner of Seventh and Arch streets to be known as Fort 
Rittenhouse, upon page 201, there appears an affidavit of 
Thomas Passmore, an auctioneer of the city. He deposed 
"that, on Sunday last, the 30th of April, ultimo, between five 
and six o'clock in the afternoon, as he was standing near the 
door of the County Court House, at the corner of Sixth and 
Chestnut streets, he heard some voices calling from the balcony 

28 



30 

o 



■v 

I 

O 

H 
O 

33 
> 

•o 

I 




of the Court House, ' Corless, that's wrong.' Upon looking 
round this deponent saw Matthias Corless, who this deponent 
understood was one of the jurors in the case of the United 
States against Bright and others, passing from the said Court 
House across the street towards the Shakespere Hotel, a 
tavern situate at the northwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut 
streets." That court was therefore sitting here in 1809. The 
directory for 1809 says that the Orphans' Court then sat "on 
the third Friday of every month at the County Court House." 
The jurisdiction of the Orphans' Court was at that time ex- 
ercised by the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, who were 
also the judges of the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and of the 
Quarter Sessions. It is probable, therefore, that the United 
States Courts and the Common Pleas, with its accessories, 
commenced their sessions here soon after the building was 
surrendered by the Congress, and presumably the Common 
Pleas continued to hold its sessions in the building until the 
number of criminal cases became so great as to require con- 
tinuous sessions of the criminal courts. The United States 
Courts remained until September 15, 1826. According to 
Westcott, the District Court began to hold its sessions here in 
1818, and it continued to sit here until its final dissolution on 
the 4th of January, 1875. The following list of the judges of 
that court while in this building is taken from Martin's " Bench 
and Bar " : 



29 



PRESIDENT JUDGES. 

Joseph Hemphill, May 6, 1811. 

Joseph Borden McKean, October 1, 1818. 

Jared Ingersoll, March 19, 182 1. 

Moses Levy, December 18, 1822. 

Joseph Borden McKean, March 21, 1825. 

Joseph Barnes, October 24, 1826. 

Thomas McKean Pettit, April 22, 1835. 

Joel Jones, April 8, 1845. 

George Sharswood, February 1, 1848. 

John Innes Clark Hare, December 1, 1867. 

ASSOCIATE JUDGES. 

Anthony Simmons, May 6, 181 1. 
Jacob Summer, June 3, 181 1. 
Thomas Sergeant, October 20, 18 14. 
Joseph Borden McKean, March 27, 18 14. 
Joseph Barnes, October 1, 1818. 
Joseph Borden McKean, March 17, 1821. 
Benjamin Rawle Morgan, March 29, 1821. 
John Hallovvell, March 27, 1825. 
Charles Sidney Coxe, October 24, 1826. 
Thomas McKean Pettit, February 16, 1833. 
George McDowell Stroud, March 30, 1835. 
Joel Jones, April 22, 1835. 
John King Findlay, February 5, 1848. 
John Innes Clark Hare, December 1, 1851. 
Martin Russell Thayer, December 1, 1867. 
Thomas Greenbank, December 7, 1868. 
Martin Russell Thayer, March 27, 1869. 
James Lynd, December 5, 1870. 
James Tyndale Mitchell, December 4, 1871. 
Amos Briggs, March 25, 1872. 



3° 



Upon the abolition of the District Court and the reorgani- 
zation of the Courts of Common Pleas, the south room of the 
upper story C and the north room D were assigned to the 
Court of Common Pleas No. 2, and have been occupied by that 
court until to-day. The judges of No. 2 who have sat here 
have been : 

PRESIDENT JUDGE. 
John Innes Clark Hare, January 4, 1875. 

ASSOCIATE JUDGES. 
James Tyndale Mitchell, January 4, 1S75. 
Joseph T. Pratt, January 4, 1875. 
David Newlin Fell, May 3, 1877. 
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, January 9, 1889. 
Theodore Finley Jenkins, January 1, 1894. 
Mayer Sulzberger, January 1, 1895. 

Three of the judges have gone from this building to the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania — George Sharswood, James 
Tyndale Mitchell and David Newlin Fell — and perhaps no 
living American is more widely respected among men of the 
English-speaking races for his learning and attainments as a 
jurist than the president judge of this court. The south room 
of the lower floor was used by the Court of Oyer and Ter- 
miner until the erection of the brick building on Sixth Street 
below Chestnut, in 1867, as I am informed by Judge F. Carroll 
Brewster ; and among- the famous murder cases tried here 
were those of Richard Smith, Arthur Spring, Charles Lang- 
feldt, and that most ferocious of Philadelphia murderers, Anton 
Probst. The Court of Quarter Sessions continued to hold its 

3" 



sessions in that room until its removal to the City Hall, at 
Broad and Market streets, July 31, 1891. From that time 
until the present, it has been used for jury trials by Judges 
Craig Biddle and Francois Amedee Bregy, of the Court of 
Common Pleas No. 1 . For many years the Law Academy of 
Philadelphia held its moot court in room D. 

The Law Association had its meetings and kept its library 
upon the upper floor from 181 9 till 1872, and on October 28, 
1 841, made a circular announcement that "Gentlemen who 
wish to converse will be pleased to withdraw to the conver- 
sation room on the east side of the hall." 

The north room of the first floor has been the office of the 
Prothonotary of the Courts of Common Pleas, Colonel William 
B. Mann, since January, 1879. Before that date it was occu- 
pied as the Tax Office, and at a still earlier time by the High- 
way Department. 

The venerable building has not been without its vicissi- 
tudes. On the 26th of December, 1821, a fire, caused by a 
defective flue, burned the northern part of the roof and injured 
the cupola, but the activity of the firemen preserved it from 
destruction. During a conflagration at Hart's building in De- 
cember, 1 85 1, it caught fire several times and was in the 
greatest danger, but was again happily saved. At one time 
legislation was proposed and passed by one of the Houses at 
Harrisburg to tear down the State House and other buildings 
and sell the ground for what it would bring at auction. The 
Act of August, 5, 1870, providing for the appointment of a 
building commission, directed that this hall should be removed, 

32 



but, fortunately, that part of the Act has never been carried 
into effect, and was repealed at the last session of the Legisla- 
ture. Nor has it been without a suggestion of tragedy. Upon 
the morning of December 1 1, 1866, Judge F. Carroll Brewster, 
though holding the Court of Common Pleas, sat temporarily in 
room D to hear an application for the appointment of a receiver 
in a case of Vankirk vs. Page. As he leaned forward to talk to 
an officer an iron ventilator weighing seventy pounds fell from 
the ceiling and crushed the back and legs of his chair. 1 

On the 1 6th of February, 1893, the case of Lukens vs. The 
City, which had been on trial in room D for four days, was 
given to the jury shortly after 3 o'clock in the afternoon. As 
the judge left the court-room, the plaintiff asked him whether 
he would not wait and take the verdict. After a momentary 
consideration, he declined, saying it could be sealed and 
brought into the court the next morning. A short time after- 
ward, a mass of plaster and lath, eight inches in thickness and 
weighing hundreds of pounds, fell upon the bench and chair, 
crushing the bench to the floor, and so filling the room with 
debris that for some days the court was held in the lower story. 
The danger to the judges had no effect to deter a ribald wit of 
the Bar from suggesting, " Fiat justitia, ruat ceiling" 

The hour for departure has arrived. There is a French 
proverb which runs, that the man who wears silk stockings is 
careful about stepping into the mud. It has been the good 
fortune of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 hitherto to con- 
duct its proceedings amid surroundings and influences calculated 

1 The Press, December 12, 1866. 
3 M 



to be helpful in aiding it to maintain a high standard of recti- 
tude and professional effort. In this place those measures were 
taken which established the government of the United States 
upon a firm basis, and started it upon its wonderful career of 
development and prosperity. Here for the greater part of a 
century the rights of personal liberty of the citizens of Philadel- 
phia were decided, and their rights of property, since the judg- 
ments of the District Court were for the most part final, were 
determined. The tread of Washington and Adams and Jeffer- 
son had scarcely ceased to resound amid these walls, before 
they began to hearken to the learning of McKean and Shars- 
wood and Hare. The eloquence of Stockton and Morris, of 
Marshall and Boudinot, strenuous and urgent about matters of 
state and finance, died away into the past only to give place to 
the eloquence of Binney, and Meredith, and McCall, and 
Cuyler, 1 and Brewster, and Sheppard, striving for the solution 
of abstruse and intricate legal problems, and that of Reed, and 
Brown, and Mann, and Cassidy, contending over questions of 
life and death. And it is to be hoped that the end is not yet. 
We depart with an assured faith that the people of this efficient 
and forceful community, possessing as they do the sacred fanes 
of America, and mindful as they are of the importance and value 
of such possession, will see to it that this building is retained un- 
changed for the future generations of citizens, and that its hal- 
lowed memories are carefully preserved and proudly cherished. 

1 An eminent Philadelphia lawyer says of Mr. Cuyler that he possessed the 
highest qualifications of an advocate, and that " he could persuade a jury to find a 
verdict against the evidence, and the Supreme Court to render a decision contrary to 
the law." 

34 



LIBRRRY OF CONGRESS 



014 314 833 6 



